State v. Parker

A jury found defendant guilty of second degree murder. He appeals from the judgment of life imprisonment which followed. The crucial assignment of error results from the testimony of witnesses who were permitted to relate statements made to them by an alleged conspirator. The statements were not made in the presence of defendant. The admissibility of that testimony is the decisive question in the ease.

The person who was killed had been one Robert Holloway. He was last seen alive when he left a tavern in Portland at about 1:30 a. m. on October 27, 1957. Holloway was then accompanied by…